Title: The Summer of Christmas
Author: Juliet Giglio and Keith Giglio
Narrated by: Elizabeth Cottle
Publisher:
Dreamscape Media
Length: 10 hours and 23 Minutes
Source: Sourcebooks,
Dreamscape Media & Netgalley. Thank-you!
Wednesday, August 31, 2022
The Summer of Christmas by Juliet Giglio and Keith Giglio
Title: The Summer of Christmas
Monday, August 29, 2022
A Lady’s Guide to Death and Deception (The Secret Life of Mary Bennet #3) by Katherine Cowley – an Austenprose PR Book Tour
Title: A Lady’s Guide to Death and Deception (The
Secret Life of Mary Bennet #3)
Author: Katherine Cowley
Narrated by: Alison Larkin
Publisher: Dreamscape
Media
Length: 10 hours and 36 Minutes
Source: Dreamscape
Media & Netgalley as part of the
Austenprose PR Book Tour. Thank-you!
QUICK FACTS
.jpg)
·
Title: The Lady’s Guide to Death and
Deception: The Secret Life of Mary Bennet (Book 3)
·
Series: The Secret Life of Mary
Bennet
·
Author: Katherine
Cowley
·
Genre: Historical Mystery, Historical
Romance, Austenesque
·
Publisher: Tule Publishing Group,
LLC (September 6, 2022)
·
Length: (368) pages
· Format: Trade
paperback, eBook, & audiobook
· ISBN: 978-1957748566
·
Tour Dates: August 29 – September 11,
2022
BOOK DESCRIPTION
What is
a spy willing to do when both her heart and her country are at risk?
Life
changes once again for British spy Miss Mary Bennet when Napoleon Bonaparte
escapes from the Isle of Elba. Mary quickly departs England for Brussels, the
city where the Allied forces prepare for war against the French. But shortly
after her arrival, one of the Duke of Wellington's best officers is murdered,
an event which threatens to break the delicate alliance between the Allies.
Investigating
the murder forces Mary into precarious levels of espionage, role-playing, and
deception with her new partner, Mr. Withrow-the nephew and heir of her
prominent sponsor, and the spy with whom she's often at odds. Together, they
court danger and discovery as they play dual roles gathering intelligence for
the British. But soon Mary realizes that her growing feelings towards Mr.
Withrow put her heart in as much danger as her life. And then there's another
murder.
Mary
will need to unmask the murderer before more people are killed, but can she do
so and remain hidden in the background?
ADVANCE PRAISE
“5 STARS. Just a delight!”— Wren, The Zebra Reader
“I really enjoyed this book. It is a great addition to the series. I loved that Mary is finding love in a logical way that fits her character…Highly recommend.”— Mariana, Goodreads
“I absolutely love Katherine Cowley's Mary Bennet series, and I think [The Lady’s Guide to Death and Deception] may be the best book in the series.”— Madison, Goodreads
PURCHASE LINKS
AMAZON | BARNES
& NOBLE | BOOK
DEPOSITORY | BOOKSHOP | GOODREADS | BOOKBUB
AUDIOBOOK PURCHASE LINKS
AUDIBLE | LIBRO.FM | CHIRP
BOOKS | APPLE
BOOKS
AUTHOR BIO
Katherine Cowley read Pride and Prejudice for the first time when she
was ten years old, which started a lifelong obsession with Jane Austen. Her
debut novel, The Secret Life of Miss Mary Bennet, was nominated for the
Mary Higgins Clark Award. Her Mary Bennet spy series continues with the novels The
True Confessions of a London Spy and The Lady’s Guide to Death and
Deception. Katherine loves history, chocolate, traveling, and playing the
piano, and she has taught writing classes at Western Michigan University. She
lives in Kalamazoo, Michigan with her husband and three daughters.
WEBSITE | TWITTER | FACEBOOK | PINTEREST | INSTAGRAM | GOODREADS
Read
an in-depth interview
with author Katherine Cowley revealing insights
into her new historical mystery novel, The Lady’s Guide to Death and Deception.
The True Confessions of a London Spy (The Secret Life of Mary Bennet #2) by Katherine Cowley
What is your favorite book series?
The True Confessions of a London Spy is the second
book in The Secret Life of Mary Bennet series.
It was an enjoyable addition to the series.
Mary Bennet is working undercover in London for the season
to help to track down a murderer. She is
staying with her sister Elizabeth and her husband Mr. Darcy. Her sister Kitty and Mr. Darcy’s sister
Georgiana are also staying with them in town so they can all enjoy the season
together. Will Mary be able to solve the
murder mystery and how can she do it without arising the suspicions of Mr.
Darcy?
I love Mary’s continued growth as a character in this novel. I especially enjoyed her developing her relationship
with her sister Kitty and making the realization that both she and Kitty were
not treated the best in her family. The
Bennet family is a bit dysfunctional. I also
enjoyed that both Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy suspected something was up, but
couldn’t quite put their finger on it.
Mary seems to keep growing in her self-confidence and I really liked how
she helped Georgiana in this novel. The
mystery was agreeable, and I loved the London of 1814 setting.
Book Source: Purchased
for my Kindle on Amazon.com
Thursday, August 25, 2022
When Can We Go Back to America by Susan H. Kamai
When Can We Go Back to America by Susan H. Kamai
Title: When Can We Go Back to America
Author: Susan
H. Kamai
Narrated by: Allison
Hiroto, Kurt Kanazawa, Andrew Kishino, and Mizuo Peck
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Length: Approximately 21 hours and 42 minutes
Source: Review Copy from Simon & Schuster. Thank-you!
What historical period of time would you like to learn more about?
I knew a bit about the internment of American citizens of Japanese descent, but When Can We Go Back to America is a full deep dive into this period of history. I learned a lot. This was a great audiobook experience as the stories were told in first person accounts from the people who lived it. As my college history professor has always said, it is best to learn history from first person accounts.
One item I learned that surprised me is that American citizens of Japanese descent and Japanese American citizens that were prominent were arrested on December 7th and taken away. I didn’t know that it had happened so fast. The FBI had been compiling lists well before December 7th and were ready. It was heard to listen to the stories of the American citizens taken away from their homes, giving up everything to life in what was termed as that time as concentration camps. An image that really stuck with me is that the children that were Boy Scouts wore their uniforms and helped everyone out.
The audiobook also focused on the 442nd Infantry unit that was put together of the American citizens of Japanese descent. This until became one of the most decorated units in World War II and fought on the European front. The stories of bravery were inspiring.
The story told through the end of the war and when the American citizens of Japanese descent returned home. They no longer had homes, farms, or anything and had to start over. It was hard, and especially hard for the decorated soldiers who returned home to find they and their families had nothing. It took forty years, but in the 1980s, the people who were interned received compensation from the government.
At this point, I thought the audiobook was finished, but there was still seven hours left. It was seven hours of biographies of all of the people whose stories were used in this book. They were riveting, sad, inspiriting, and truly the story of America. I also enjoyed that George Takei of Star Trek fame was included. I read and loved his graphic novel about his internment experience, They Called Us Enemies, with my son Daniel.
I first really learned of the Japanese internment when I read Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson in the 1990s. This book was mentioned as was the real-life person who the story was based on.
When Can We Go Back to America got its name from a child who asked this question as they couldn’t believe they were still in America as they lived in a concentration camp. This story is important for all Americans to read or to listen to. We need to make sure we remember the rights of American citizens and ensure that this never happens again.
This book was intriguing and told a very important story in American history. I highly recommend it.
Back to the Prairie by Melissa Gilbert
Title: Back to the Prairie
Author: Melissa Gilbert
Narrated by: Melissa Gilbert
Publisher: Simon
& Schuster Audio
Length:
Approximately 7 hours and 1 minutes
Source: Review
Copy from Simon & Schuster.
Thank-you!
Sunday, August 21, 2022
The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley
If you had an apartment, you could stay in for free anywhere, where would you visit? I want to go so many places; this is a hard question for me. I think right now, I would love to stay in an apartment in Vienna. Paris would definitely be a great place to visit.
In the last two years, I have read and enjoyed The
Hunting Party and The Guest List by Lucy Foley, so my expectations were quite
high for this new book. Sadly, this new
novel didn’t quite meet my expectations.
On the positive, The Paris Apartment had super short chapters
that told alternating viewpoints as down on her luck Jess travels to Paris to
stay with her half-brother Ben and discovers he is missing. What happened to Ben? His last voicemail makes Jess believe he may
have been hurt or killed. All of his
neighbors in the building seem to have secrets and Jess works on trying to
figure out what they had to do with Ben.
The book was supposed to be a page turner, but it was really slow for me
until the very end. The characters were
all unlikeable and hard to relate to. I
found myself not caring about the missing Ben like I should have. On the positive, I did like that the
characters definitely were painted with shades of grey. The book did pick up at the end and I found myself
intrigued again. The book did tie up all
of the loose ends and had a good conclusion.
I listened to an interview with Lucy Foley on the Book
Club Girls Podcast right after I finished the book. It was a great interview. It discussed the class and power issues in
this novel with the upstairs / downstairs type setting. Foley had stayed in a building in Paris, and
it gave her the inspiration to write this novel. I also thought it was interesting that she
wanted to be Agatha Christie’s Miss Maple if she had to pick any fictional
character.
Overall, The Paris Apartment was a mediocre
thriller. If you are new to Lucy Foley,
I recommend The Hunting Party and The Guest List.
Book Source:
The Kewaunee Public Library
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Gone with the Wind was a spring read for the Back to the Classics Book Club at the Kewaunee Public Library. This was my third time reading this novel in my life. I read it first in middle school and last time in my later twenties. I seem to have a different perspective and learn something new every time I read it. One thing I realized this time is that it works a lot better for me to read it straight through rather than to read half of it for one book club discussion and then finish it a couple of months later for the second book club discussion.
Gone With the Wind is an epic, layered novel with some
of the greatest characters in literature.
Scarlett O’Hara is a heroine that you disdain at times, but you can’t
stop reading about her. Rhett Butler is
a scoundrel that you root for, and at his heart, he truly loves Scarlett. There are so many good characters in this
story.
In this reading of the classic tale, I was struck by
how both Rhett Butler and Ashley Wilkes are realistic about the Civil War. They both talk about how politicians and
people with money have riled up the populace to fight in a war that they can’t
win and that doesn’t benefit most of the people of the south. I loved this quote by Rhett Butler, “All wars
are sacred to those who have to fight them. If the people who started wars
didn't make them sacred, who would be foolish enough to fight? But, no matter
what rallying cries the orators give to the idiots who fight, no matter what
noble purposes they assign to wars, there is never but one reason for war. And
that is money. All wars are in reality money squabbles. But so, few people ever
realize it. Their ears are too full of bugles and drums and fine words from
stay-at-home orators. Sometimes the rallying cry is 'Save the Tomb of Christ
from the Heathen!' Sometimes it's 'Down with Popery!' and sometimes 'Liberty!'
and sometimes 'Cotton, slavery, and States' Rights!'” Some things don’t change. I totally didn’t remember these views in Gone
with the Wind.
It was an interesting look at how the war changed
everything in Georgia. It does show how
the war came right to where they lived and changed their lives forever. The siege of Atlanta was one of the most
thrilling sections of a book that I have ever read. It was sad as characters you’ve grown to know
died seemingly senseless deaths.
The book does paint a fantasy version of the perfect
South that never really existed. For
instance, the black characters in the story are all happy slaves before the
war. After the war, free black people
are not looked too kindly upon. The most
troubling aspect of the novel is that pretty much everyone Scarlett knows is in
the Ku Klux Klan and it’s painted as a great organization that is protecting
the women of the south. It’s a very strange
thing to read, especially knowing that Scarlett is Catholic and the KKK does
not look too kindly upon Catholics. This
must be how the author in the 1930s South rationalized the KKK and its
existence.
I’ve recently been disturbed to see people who have
never read this novel stating on my classic book club pages that you are racist
if you’ve read this novel or enjoyed this novel. I find that troubling as well. You will never learn about the past and take
a good look at what was bad and good if you just label things as racist without
reading them and having discussions on them.
If we can’t look at the past to learn from our mistakes, I don’t know
how we will move forward.
Book Source: I
own two copies of this book. One is a
June 1936 edition that I bought at an auction (sadly May 1936 is the first
edition) and the other that I got at a half off bookstore. It’s a beautiful copy as well. This time around, I read it on my Kindle.
Tuesday, August 16, 2022
Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr
Do you like dual timelines in a novel? What about three or more timelines?
Cloud Cuckoo Land has three distinct timelines, but there
are other timelines throughout. The
novel starts in 2020 with a young man getting a bomb ready to go off at a
library where young children are putting on a play, Cloud Cuckoo Land. The novel flashes back in time for a couple
of key players in this timeline to build up why these characters are here and
give background to the choices they will make.
This includes Seymour, a young misunderstood boy who grows into a young
man that is recruited by eco-terrorists, and Zeno, an old Korean War veteran
who is working on the translation of Cloud Cuckoo Land.
Another timeline is in Constantinople in 1453. Anna is an orphan and seamstress who is
trying to help out her sister, Maria.
She takes manuscripts from an old crumbling abbey and sells them to make
money. This is how the manuscript of Cloud Cuckoo Land is rescued. Omeir is a young peasant boy born with a
cleft palate. He is recruited by the
sultan to drive his team of oxen to help overtake Constantinople. There his and Anna’s story will collide.
In the future Konstance is on an intergenerational spaceship
traveling toward a new home. She is
intrigued by everything and wants to learn as much as she can.
There was a lot going on in this novel. It was the July pick for the Page-turners
Book Club at the Kewaunee Public Library.
It gave us a lot to discuss. I
felt like when I would start to get into a story line, I would be disappointed
to move to another point of view. I
learned that one of my book club members would stay with that viewpoint and
read through the novel which I thought was an interesting way to do it.
I thought the book was very interesting, beautifully
written, and a unique storyline. I felt
vested in the characters that thought that the ending was masterfully pulled
together. It was a good book.
I started to read this book on audiobook, but I found
that it worked better for me to read it on my Kindle to keep track of all of
the different storylines. Another book
club member listened and read the novel.
The narrators in the audiobook were excellent.
Book Source:
Thank-you to Simon Schuster Audiobooks and Netgalley.
Sunday, August 14, 2022
Miss Julia’s Marvelous Makeover by Ann B. Ross
What is your cozy place to read? I like to read in my reading nook at home, on a sofa with a big window and my cats nearby.
Miss Julia’s Marvelous Makeover was the August pick
for the Page-turners’ Book Club at the Kewaunee Public Library. It is the fifteenth book in the Miss Julia
series and it’s the first book I’ve read.
Miss Julia is a middle-aged woman who lives in a small town in the
South. Her world is shaken up when her
husband decides to run for office and her cousin sends her granddaughter,
Trixie, to stay with Miss Julia for the summer without asking. She is hoping that Julia can help make Trixie
over. Will Miss Julia be able to help
Trixie?
Miss Julia’s Marvelous Makeover is a cozy read. It’s life in a small town. Not much really happens. It’s a very readable book, but it was a
slower read for me as it didn’t really hook me.
I think if I would have read the entire series, I would have cared more
about all of the characters, but it was fine as a standalone.
Book Source:
The Kewaunee Public Library.
Thank-you!
Friday, August 12, 2022
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
What is your favorite book that you’ve read this year? I’ve read a lot of good books, but Lessons in
Chemistry is my favorite this year.
Elizabeth Zott is a chemist, and this has been her
passion and her dream. She is the lone
chemist at the Hastings Research Institute in the 1950s. Most of her colleagues don’t believe she
belongs there except for the top scientist at the institute, Calvin Evans. Evans is a young genius and already Nobel
Prize nominated while in his twenties.
He falls in love with Elizabeth’s mind and sparks fly when they get
together. When tragedy strikes,
Elizabeth finds herself teaching America how to cook with chemistry in a
cooking show. Will she be able to
fulfill her dream of being a chemist and also how to deal with her grief?
Lessons in Chemistry was a unique story that gripped
me from the first page. I had a hard
time putting it down. The characters were
interesting and unique. I loved their viewpoints. I also love how the dog, Six-Thirty, narrated
sections as well. The book shines a light on how hard it was for a woman, even
a very gifted woman, to make a living in science in the past and to receive the
same respect and pay as her male colleagues.
The hurdles that Elizabeth faced were quite high. I’d like to say that things have completely
changed from that time, but some of the hurdles were the same for me as a woman
in engineering. The book had a mystery
throughout about Calvin’s past and I liked that it was tied up in a very
satisfying way at the end of the novel.
It was overall an uplifting novel.
I also loved that Elizabeth found a family with her motley crew of
friends.
Favorite Quotes:
“Elizabeth Zott held grudges too. Except her grudges were mainly reserved for
a patriarchal society founded on the idea that women were less. Less capable.
Less intelligent. Less
inventive. A society that believed men
went to work and did important things – discovered planets, developed products,
created laws – and women stayed at home and raised children. She didn’t want children – she knew this
about herself- but she also knew that plenty of other women did want children
and a career. And what was wrong with
that? Nothing. It was exactly what men got.”
“She saw herself living in such a society. A place that didn’t always automatically mistake
her for a secretary, a place where, when she presented her findings at a
meeting, she didn’t have to brace herself for the men who would invariably talk
over her, or worse, take credit for her work.
Elizabeth shook her head. When it
came to equality, 1952 was a real disappointment.”
“With the exception of Calvin, her dead brother, John,
Dr. Mason, and maybe Walter Pine, she only ever seemed to bring out the worst
in men. They either wanted to control
her, touch her, dominate her, silence her, correct her, or tell her what to
do. She didn’t understand why they
couldn’t just treat her as a fellow human being, as a colleague, a friend, an
equal, or even a stranger on the street, someone to whom one is automatically
respectful until you find out they’ve buried a bunch of bodies in the
backyard.”
“Imagine if all men took women seriously. Education would change. The workforce would revolutionize. Marriage counselors would go out of
business. Do you see my point?”
“Although he would never be a chemist, he was a
dog. And as a dog he knew a permanent
bond when he saw one.”
Book Source:
The Kewaunee Public Library. Thank-you!
The Guncle by Steven Rowley
Did you ever have a favorite relative you would stay with as a child? I used to spend a week in the summer with my Great Grandpa and Grandma Kile in Indiana and I loved it. We built some special memories together.
Special memories are built between Patrick and his
niece and nephew, Maisie and Grant, when they come to visit him for the summer
in Palm Springs. Maisie and Grant have
recently lost their mother to cancer and their father is in rehab. Gay Uncle Patrick, or Guncle, takes the kids
and teaches them his Guncle rules for life.
When Patrick’s sister comes to take the children away, will he be able
to keep them for the rest of the summer?
Does he want to?
I came into The Guncle thinking it was just a comedy
book. Patrick is very witty and a fun
character, but this book is so much more.
It’s a realistic and thoughtful look at death and loss. The book flashes back to Patrick’s great
love, Joe, who died in a terrible car accident that Patrick survived. Although they were partners, Joe’s family didn’t recognize their relationship and
wouldn’t allow Patrick to be with him at the end. Patrick has spent the past years closed down,
not allowing himself to move on and live his life. As he helps the children through their own
grief, it allows him to work though his own.
I loved this book.
It was heart warming and a great unique story. The writing was smart and funny.
Book Source:
Purchased at Prose and Politics in Washington DC. Thank-you!
Wednesday, August 10, 2022
Emma by Jane Austen
Title: Emma
Author: Jane Austen
Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
Publisher: Naxos
Edition
Length:
Approximately 16 hours and 39 minutes
Source: Purchased
from Amazon.com
What books do you like to reread? What is an old favorite book that you return to?